UK regulator provisionally approves Microsoft's $75bn Activision Blizzard deal
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced Friday that it has provisionally approved Microsoft's $75 billion acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard. This follows months of back-and-forth between the companies and the regulator.
In April, the CMA blocked the deal, citing concerns about the impact on competition in cloud gaming. Microsoft challenged the decision, but in August the CMA rejected its arguments and imposed a final order prohibiting the acquisition worldwide.
To address the CMA's concerns, Microsoft submitted a restructured proposal last month. Under this new deal, Microsoft will sell Activision's cloud streaming rights for current and future PC and console games over the next 15 years to rival French publisher Ubisoft.
Similar concessions were made to gain European Union approval in May.
This provisional approval is a major step forward for the acquisition, which Microsoft first announced in January 2022. However, the CMA cautioned that final approval is not guaranteed and will depend on its assessment of how the restructured deal affects competition.
"While the restructured deal is materially different to the previous transaction and substantially addresses most concerns, the CMA has limited residual concerns that certain provisions in the sale of Activision's cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft could be circumvented, terminated, or not enforced," the CMA said in a statement.
"To address these concerns, Microsoft has offered remedies to ensure that the terms of the sale of Activision's rights to Ubisoft are enforceable by the CMA. The CMA has provisionally concluded that this additional protection should resolve those residual concerns."
If given final approval, this would clear the way for Microsoft's largest ever acquisition. The deal has already been cleared by EU regulators and in the US, where the FTC lost its bid to block the deal in court.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard now hope to close the acquisition by the extended deadline of 18th October.